Robert was born in Scotland to John Orr and Mary Erskine. He worked on a farm in 1841 as a boy with two of his other brothers to help with costs to send his family to Canada.
In his niece, Elizabeth Orr McKell's notes, she writes the memory of this fact;
"What about the children during those years? Mary, the eldest daughter went to Canada in 1831 with her Uncle and Aunt, the Esdons. William, the eldest son who worked at the Printfields at Blantyre followed in 1832. John & Alexander had a business in Paisley. The girls (Agnes and her sisters) who were old enough worked out, and the three youngest boys, Robert, James and Matthew hired with farmers so that in 1841 there was enough money to take the family to Canada and to purchase a home. So on the 3rd of May, 1841, John Orr and his family, with the exception of John and Alexander (who followed in 1842), set sail from Glasgow and Greenock in a boat, "The Brig William"."
McKell, Elizabeth Orr. MEMOIRS OF MRS JAMES MCKELL 1821-1949. THE HISTORY OF THE ORR FAMILY. English River, QC: printed by MacDonald College of McGill University, apt 1949
Niall Wilson Geneology. Retrived from: http://www.niallwilson.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=1252&tree=orr&tngprint=1
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